Swimming by the numbers

            The closest thing I have to a meditation practice is lap swimming. In order to keep track of my lengths, I focus on the numbers by association.
            13: adolescence, teenage angst – is that why it’s bad luck?
            17: Strangely, Sam on the high school soccer field.
            18: A quarter done.
         22: Couple o’ ducks! The refrain from our summer Bingo callers for I-22, their long, tanned legs swinging from the wooden counter where they sit.
            23: Childhood underwater rhyming game that finished with “23-skiddoo!”
            26: My father-in-law’s birth year, birthday, and age at marriage.
            28: My birthday.
            29: My cousin Elaine’s birthday, one year and a day after me.
            30: Age of a lot of my kids and in-laws right now.
            33: Jesus’s reputed age at death. I sing Godspell songs in my head.
            36: Halfway!
            39: Three times thirteen.
      49: Mom in the old kitchen with turquoise, formica backsplash. She made up songs to help me memorize my times tables, “seven times seven is forty-nine, if the clouds come out then the sun won’t shine”
            54: Dad’s historic class at Yale, baseball caps, football games (also ¾ done!).
            60: What I’ll be soon.
            64: I sing the Beatles’ song.
            66: I sing Route 66.
            69: not telling
            72: DONE!
           
My 60th year in 60,000 words
Day 69: 210 words, TOTAL = 11,444; 48,556 remaining